In which Amber finds something she was looking for by getting lost
I explored Fabrizio's contrada (neighborhood) on Tuesday. It's called L' Onda- The Wave, and their mascot is a dolphin, and their colors are light blue and white. I bought a L'Onda flag, and found a store that sells cheap drug items. I bought like 12 minipacks of tissues for like 80 Euro-cents. I found the contrada's church (I think), and then found a place with a great view of the countryside (pictures eventually...). And then I found the botanical gardens, though I couldn't stay very long, in the neighboring contrada of the Turtle. I'll go back soon and take more pictures.
Two UC students moved into my house on Tuesday night. John from UC Davis and Roman from UCSC. They're both nice, and both have taken way more Italian than I have, of course. But we help each other out at dinner. It's nice being able to speak some English at home, too.
I visited the Wednesday market for about an hour--it's huge. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't buy anything, though they have a lot of awesome-looking cheap clothes. About half of them were purple- it must be "in" this season. I definitely bought two purple tops at a cheap clothing store I found in the city, though. 7.5 Euros for a T-shirt and a tank top!
Yesterday (Wednesday) I successfully located the Jewish synagogue in Siena--unfortunately they don't have more visiting hours until next week. So more on that later. Anyway, jazzed by my success, I decided to look for the Basilica di San Francesco, because there's a really great view of it from my house by I haven't seen it yet in the city. Naturally, I ended up going in a completely different direction because the street forked and I picked the wrong way. Instead, I ended up at the Basilica di Santa Maria di Servi, which I didn't go inside, but was really excited to see has a nice, quiet(ish) little grassy-park-like area in front of it. I have finally found my study spot! I studied my irregular verb present tense conjugation flashcards there and it was awesome. I've been a total slacker this week, wandering around the city for 2-3 hours exploring and totally wearing myself out (but taking bunches of pictures I will eventually post!) so that I barely have any energy to do homework that night. Because there was nowhere in the city center where I felt inspired to actually sit down and do some work. Until yesterday!
I'm going to a contrada party tomorrow night (one of the ones that won the Palio), and will hopefully be able to report back on how awesome it was. Don't know how to break it to Fabrizio, though--he seemed so excited about my supporting L'Onda.
Gotta go, I have Music class, where we awkwardly sing in Italian! Ciao and I miss you all!
<3 Amber
Two UC students moved into my house on Tuesday night. John from UC Davis and Roman from UCSC. They're both nice, and both have taken way more Italian than I have, of course. But we help each other out at dinner. It's nice being able to speak some English at home, too.
I visited the Wednesday market for about an hour--it's huge. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't buy anything, though they have a lot of awesome-looking cheap clothes. About half of them were purple- it must be "in" this season. I definitely bought two purple tops at a cheap clothing store I found in the city, though. 7.5 Euros for a T-shirt and a tank top!
Yesterday (Wednesday) I successfully located the Jewish synagogue in Siena--unfortunately they don't have more visiting hours until next week. So more on that later. Anyway, jazzed by my success, I decided to look for the Basilica di San Francesco, because there's a really great view of it from my house by I haven't seen it yet in the city. Naturally, I ended up going in a completely different direction because the street forked and I picked the wrong way. Instead, I ended up at the Basilica di Santa Maria di Servi, which I didn't go inside, but was really excited to see has a nice, quiet(ish) little grassy-park-like area in front of it. I have finally found my study spot! I studied my irregular verb present tense conjugation flashcards there and it was awesome. I've been a total slacker this week, wandering around the city for 2-3 hours exploring and totally wearing myself out (but taking bunches of pictures I will eventually post!) so that I barely have any energy to do homework that night. Because there was nowhere in the city center where I felt inspired to actually sit down and do some work. Until yesterday!
I'm going to a contrada party tomorrow night (one of the ones that won the Palio), and will hopefully be able to report back on how awesome it was. Don't know how to break it to Fabrizio, though--he seemed so excited about my supporting L'Onda.
Gotta go, I have Music class, where we awkwardly sing in Italian! Ciao and I miss you all!
<3 Amber